For decades, botanists suspected that plants could communicate with one another to warn of impending danger, but direct observation of this phenomenon remained elusive. A recent study of wild sagebrush plants in a controlled environment has provided clear support for this hypothesis. Researchers damaged the leaves of individual sagebrush plants using mechanical clippers to simulate a typical attack by leaf-eating insects. They then monitored nearby sagebrush plants that had not been cut or handled. Within hours, these neighboring, undamaged plants began producing significantly higher levels of polyphenol oxidase, a specialized chemical defense that makes their leaves bitter and unpalatable to herbivores. The researchers observed that this chemical defense was only activated in neighbors that were downwind from the damaged plants. This biochemical shift demonstrates that plants can detect airborne signals released by their distressed neighbors and proactively prepare for potential threats, confirming that plant communication is a vital survival mechanism rather than a speculative theory.
According to the passage, which of the following findings serves as the primary evidence supporting the claim that sagebrush plants communicate with one another?
- APlants can actively detect airborne distress signals and proactively prepare for potential threats.
- Undamaged sagebrush plants downwind from damaged neighbors produced higher levels of polyphenol oxidase.Answer
- CBotanists have suspected for decades that plants have the capacity to warn each other of danger.
- DMechanical clippers are more effective at triggering chemical defenses than actual insect attacks.